Jon Stewart Taking Summer Leave From ‘The Daily Show’

Stewart has announced he’s taking leave from his popular Comedy Central series this summer to direct his first feature film, “Rosewater.”

Stewart will be on hiatus for eight weeks, but viewers will feel his absence for a full three months, as his leave of absence will back up against four weeks of repeats. “Daily Show” correspondent John Oliver will be filling in for Stewart as host.

Stewart also wrote the screenplay for the film, which is based on the book Then They Came For Me: A Family’s Story Of Love, Captivity And Survival, the story of BBC journalist Maziar Bahari’s 118 days in captivity in Iran in 2009.

The idea of becoming a movie director is “a little scary” for the political satirist.

“I am a television person who is accustomed to having a thought at 10 a.m. and having it out there at 6:30 p.m. and moving on, so this is a little scary, yes,” Stewart told The New York Times of taking on the project.

“But one of the reasons we are in this business is to challenge ourselves,” Stewart continued, “and I really connected to Maziar’s story. It’s a personal story but one with universal appeal about what it means to be free.”